The Akron Zoo participated in a citizen science program called Soundscapes Eclipse, which recorded animals two days before and after the eclipse to see if there were any changes to their behavior.
Cassie Basset is the education mission manager at Akron Zoo; she says this kind of study has not been done since 1932.
"To be able to be part of a cool study that hasn't been done in probably over 100 years, it was exciting because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Basset.
The program also included guests and staff; they were able to do observations during the day of the eclipse.
Eilen Matais volunteers at Akron Zoo, and she says it's essential to know how an animal reacts to what's happening in its environment.
"It's very important that we know how our world works and the animals who are more connected, I'm sorry to say, than we are to the earth," said Matais.
Basset says the program involved animals that have never been studied before during an eclipse, including grizzly bears and coyotes.
"We found that the grizzly bears woke up, shook off their nap and looked around confused. Totality passed, (they) went back to sleep. Our coyotes woke up shortly before totality, and they started running around, showing a little agitation. They were also reported looking up into the sky in confusion, and they settled back down. However, it did take them a little longer than our other animals to settle down.
People at home were also able to record their observations of Ohio's native animals online.
"These native little songbirds darted into the bushes in a big group as fast as they could, as if they were going to sleep for the night. They were silent during the eclipse itself, which is funny because our songbirds call here even after dark sometimes," said Bassett.
Many people said they were excited to see the flamingos because they were seen huddling to protect their babies in the past.
"The flamingos showed a little bit of, like, agitation. At first, they were just hanging out doing flamingo things. Then, they started becoming more vocal and alert," said Bassett.
Another interesting observation the zoo recorded was that the temperature dropped 12 degrees during the eclipse. Zoo volunteers are hoping the program will motivate more kids to science.
"We're all interconnected, and I hope they study either astronomy or they get more interested in conservation and how animals and conservation work together, "said Matais
Basset says they are still waiting to hear back from Soundscape to see if there were any additional observations before or after the eclipse.
"Hopefully, they'll get some really cool information from that,and then they'll also be looking at all of the data that was collected across the entire totality of the eclipse that happened," said Bassett.
